Bhagwad Gita - Post 3

GITA MAHATMYA

GLORY OF THE GITA

(To be read at the end of the day’s Gita study)

Sri Ganeshaaya Namah! Gopaalakrishnaaya Namah!

Dharovaacha:

Bhagavan parameshaana bhaktiravyabhichaarinee;

Praarabdham bhujyamaanasya katham bhavati he prabho.

The Earth said:

 O Bhagavan, the Supreme Lord! How can unflinching devotion arise in him who is immersed in his Prarabdha Karmas (worldly life), O Lord?

Sri Vishnuruvaacha:

Praarabdham bhujyamaano hi geetaabhyaasaratah sadaa;

Sa muktah sa sukhee loke karmanaa nopalipyate.

Lord Vishnu said:

 Though engaged in the performance of worldly duties, one who is regular in the study of the Gita becomes free. He is the happy man in this world. He is not bound by Karma.

Mahaapaapaadipaapaani geetaadhyaanam karoti chet;

Kwachit sparsham na kurvanti nalineedalam ambuvat.

 Just as the water stains not the lotus leaf, even so sins do not taint him who is regular in the

recitation of the Gita.

Geetaayaah pustakam yatra yatra paathah pravartate;

Tatra sarvaani teerthaani prayaagaadeeni tatra vai.

All the sacred centres of pilgrimage, like Prayag and other places, dwell in that place where the Gita is kept, and where the Gita is read.

Sarve devaashcha rishayo yoginahpannagaashcha ye;

Gopaalaa gopikaa vaapi naaradoddhava paarshadaih.

All the gods, sages, Yogins, divine serpents, Gopalas, Gopikas (friends and devotees of Lord Krishna), Narada, Uddhava and others (dwell here).

Sahaayo jaayate sheeghram yatra geetaa pravartate;

Yatra geetaavichaarashcha pathanam paathanam shrutam;

Tatraaham nishchitam prithvi nivasaami sadaiva hi.

Help comes quickly where the Gita is recited and, O Earth, I ever dwell where it is read, heard, taught and contemplated upon!

Geetaashraye’ham tishthaami geetaa me chottamam griham;

Geetaajnaanam upaashritya treen Uokaan paalayaamyaham.

I take refuge in the Gita, and the Gita is My best abode. I protect the three worlds with the knowledge of the Gita.

Geetaa me paramaa vidyaa brahmaroopaa na samshayah;

Ardhamaatraaksharaa nityaa swaanirvaachyapadaatmikaa.

The Gita is My highest science, which is doubtless of the form of Brahman, the Eternal, the Ardhamatra (of the Pranava Om), the ineffable splendor of the Self.

Chidaanandena krishnena proktaa swamukhato’rjuna;

Vedatrayee paraanandaa tatwaarthajnaanasamyutaa.

It was spoken by the blessed Lord Krishna, the all-knowing, through His own mouth, to Arjuna. It contains the essence of the Vedas—the knowledge of the Reality. It is full of supreme bliss.

(The Gita contains the cream of the Vedas and Upanishads. Hence it is a universal scripture suited for people of all temperaments and for all ages.)

Yoashtaadasha japen nityam naro nishchalamaanasah;

Jnaanasiddhim sa labhate tato yaati param padam.

He who recites the eighteen chapters of the Bhagavad Gita daily, with a pure and unshaken mind, attains perfection in knowledge, and reaches the highest state or supreme goal.

Continued....

Love

Bhagwad Gita - Post 2

When we see the divinity everywhere, installed as the indweller in every being, and we serve that omni-present divinity in all we do, then karma yoga automatically becomes bhakti yoga. Our work becomes worship. But in this there is still some separation between ourselves and God; there is still some duality. Baba is not satisfied with our spiritual progress until we become totally immersed in non-duality and reach our highest truth, the realization of the immortal self. That is the final stage.

Baba tells a little story of an old woman who was sewing in her home at night. She was working on her tapestry when she lost her needle. The light being very dim in her house, she went out to the street lamp where the light was bright, to look for her needle. Baba ends the story there. Whenever he tells this story he always seems a little amused by the silliness of it.

We are like that old woman. We have also lost our needle while working on the tapestry of our many lives. Our lost needle is the knowledge of our truth, without which we cannot finish our work. 

After groping through countless lives caught up in illusion, we now know that there is something vital to our existence that we have lost. We go to great teachers and to ashrams where the spiritual light is intense, hoping to find there what we have lost.

We get great solace being in the light and we gain deeper understanding of what we are looking for, but the final discovery of what we have lost can only happen when we look inside our own heart of hearts. 

There within, deeper than the body and the mind, deeper than our sense of I-ness which stands at the core of our individual self, beyond all sheaths, subtle and causal, which cover our truth, we find the brightest light of all, the light of atma. When the atma, our true self is realized, the tapestry of our long journey in the world which we have been working on for so many eons and so many lives, is finally complete.

Baba assures us that, just as was true in the vision given to Arjuna showing the final outcome of the war, the outcome of our long trek and our inner war has also already been determined by the divine will. We are destined to return home. 

Nevertheless, we must still tread the path and fight the battles and win final victory over our inner enemies. We initiate this process by making friends with the divinity in our hearts, keeping it as our steady companion and allowing it to guide our inner journey.

As we proceed on our path the clouds of illusion thin out and we become aware of a great mystery. We realize that the spiritual journey we thought we were on is itself an illusion. We are not individuals on the spiritual path following the direction of the divine inner Guru. In truth, we are the totality. 

We are the divinity itself. We are and always have been the atma. Atma is neither born nor reborn; nor does it ever die. As atma, we have not come from somewhere nor are we going somewhere. We have never changed. Only the illusion of individuality and separateness has changed. Ultimately that illusion disappears, and we discover the glorious truth that we have always been one with God. Baba tells us, "God if you think, God you are. Dust if you think, dust you are. Think God. Be God. You are God. Realize it."

Some years ago, in a public discourse, Baba directed us to repeat several times daily, "I am God, I am God, I am no different from God. I am the infinite supreme. I am the one reality." If we allow this declaration of truth to suffuse our lives and fill us with the consummate love that is God, these powerful words will gradually become our direct inner experience. More and more we will identify ourselves with the divinity, our real self, and less and less with these ephemeral personalities which are but shadow selves. Thus, we realize who we are, the immortal self, the one divinity, which is love itself.

That is the inspiring message of this Gita.

(Source - Sai Baba Gita, a compilation of Divine Discourse on Bhagwad Gita delivered by Bhagwan in Aug / Sept 1984 in Prashanti Nilayam.)

Love.

Bhagwad Gita - Post 1

Gita means song. But the Gita is no ordinary song. It is the divine song of emancipation. It is given by God to free us of the illusions that have kept us bound. The Gita celebrates our highest truth, the atma.

Atma means self. But atma also means God. Atma is our God-self, our true self. And since God is always one, atma is the one true self of everyone and everything. Illusion makes it appear as the many. Our destiny is to dispel the clouds of illusion so that our truth is revealed and the atma is realized. That is self-knowledge.

When self-knowledge comes, the illusion of separate beings and separate objects goes, and is replaced by unity consciousness. 

In every major age, God comes as avatar and teaches the Gita to initiate us into self-knowledge and dispel the veils which hide our divine nature. 5000 years ago, God came as Krishna, to render this song of truth at a time of great moral decline. At that time, He gave the Gita in order to rescue Arjuna, and through him all of mankind, from the fog of illusion and attachment. 

In this age, He has come again as Sai Baba, to give this sacred teaching at another time of great turmoil and deteriorating values. The malady He is treating is the same, and the remedy He prescribes is also the same, stemming from the same ancient wisdom. 

But, being the very source of eternal wisdom, He knows how to transmit it in a way which makes it come alive today and be meaningful in this present age.

This age is different in many ways from Krishna's age. In this age, the forces of good and evil are not only battling in the same family, but they are battling inside of every being. Baba tells us that if the Lord were to come today, sword in hand, to stamp out all traces of evil, no one alive would escape or survive. 

He comes, instead, as the inner director. Following his guidance, we must fight our own inner battles, conquer our own inner enemies, and gain the ultimate victory of salvation and awakening.

Continued....

Love.